HAVING COVERED THE Cable, radio, television and telecom markets for well over seven years now, you could say I was inspired.
I’ve written about so many entrepreneurs who gambled and won (and a few who gambled and lost, too) that I suppose it had to rub off on me.
Warning, blatant self-promotion now follows.
So, on Monday, May 2 at 4:13 p.m., www.cartt.ca went live and on Tuesday, our first-ever newsletter went out filled with original stories you couldn’t find anywhere else. A feature interview with Rogers Cable CEO Edward Rogers. The news that former Videotron president Guy Beauchamp had left Telus. A feature explaining what the next federal election will mean for the industry you work in. A feature on the historic agreement signed recently between Rogers and the six largest broadcasters in the country on digital migration.
These are stories that affect your business. It’s information you need to know. This is the stuff I love to dig up and write about. To me, it’s a lot of fun.
I don’t know exactly what it is that drives people to launch their own businesses. They are risky things fraught with expense, anxiety, headaches, and joy.
A friend of mine launched her own little store in my neighborhood over a year ago and I think some of what she does is illustrative of what can make an entrepreneurial enterprise spin in the right direction.
She has a passion for people and coffee, specifically “fair trade” coffee. She sells it in bean form – as well as brewed and poured – and she’s pulling some business away from the Tim Horton’s directly across the street and the Second Cup a block away.
She also offers specialty foods and candy and assorted giftware.
These are all things you can find in many, many places at retail. But what’s different about her store is the original content. If your social conscience tells you that you want coffee that you can be sure the farmers are getting a fair shake, this is the store for you. If you like alternative food and candy that isn’t the regular KitKat, this is the store for you.
The Global Village Market may be hemmed in by chains, but that doesn’t mean she hasn’t found her niche.
Look at this industry. Ted Rogers pioneered FM radio and wireless phones on his way to building Rogers Communications. JR Shaw launched cable in Edmonton and built Shaw Communications from there. Jay Switzer’s mom Phyllis went out on a limb with some partners to launch Citytv – now a part of the CHUM Ltd. stable – itself an entrepreneurial enterprise founded by Allan Waters.
Alan Slaight and Standard. Harry Steele and Newcap. Henri Audet and Cogeco. John Bragg and EastLink. The myriad small cable companies and radio companies and their founders who remain successes today means the numbers of entrepreneurs in this industry are staggering. Even the large incumbent telcos were once well-executed ideas of small businessmen trying to bring phones into Canadian communities.
Now, I’m not putting myself close to these people. I’m just saying I was just inspired by them to go out on my own – and still cover their companies and the industry.
What I promise to you is that I will do my utmost to make www.cartt.ca the must-read of the cable, radio, television and telecom industries.
It will publish breaking news as it happens, feature stories, analysis and opinion geared specifically towards you, the reader who works in these markets. While the news is posted as it happens two e-newsletters will be sent to subscribers each and every week.
Cartt.ca is a web-based news leader. It’s not a blog. It’s not a forum. It’s not a place to post anonymous messages or to merely repeat press releases. It is original journalism and aims to serve readers across several industries which were once separate but now are now undeniably intertwined.
This site and its newsletters will provide fact, analysis and opinion of the day’s issues and events, with crucial history and context. I’ve been a journalist for 16 years, the last seven-plus of which have been spent covering, in depth, the electronic media and telecom sectors.
For me, the reader is what it’s all about. This is meant to be a service to you – a place to hash out the issues of the day at an industry level, far deeper than what you’ll read elsewhere.
So, if you like what you see, that’s great, tell me… and your friends. If you don’t like what you see, tell me. Let me know what I can do better, or differently. If you have a press release or a news tip or story idea, I want to hear it. All my direct contact info is below and can be found elsewhere on this site.
Welcome to what I hope will become the industry’s home page.
Sincerely,
Greg O’Brien
editor and publisher
www.cartt.ca Cable Radio Television Telecom
greg.obrien@cartt.ca
phone: 905-523-5820
fax: 905-523-7150
mobile: 905-407-6888
1063 King St. W., Suite 127
Hamilton, Ont.
L8S 1L8
